Rajasthan Panchayat Organic Pledge

• Bamanwas Kankar panchayat in Rajasthan has become the first village body in the State to be certified as fully organic, marking a major grassroots milestone in India’s shift towards chemical-free and sustainable agriculture.

Rajasthan Panchayat Organic Pledge:

• Bamanwas Kankar panchayat, comprising seven hamlets in Kotputli–Behror district, has formally committed to 100% organic farming and eco-friendly animal husbandry, eliminating chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and synthetic inputs from all agricultural and livestock practices.

Key features

• Chemical-free farming: All crops grown without synthetic fertilisers or pesticides.
• Eco-friendly livestock management: Animal husbandry aligned with health and ecological standards.
• Community-led transition: Shift driven by collective village decisions, not top-down mandates.
• Institutional support: Backed by COFED (Cofarmin Federation of Organic Societies and Producer Companies) for certification, data collection, and market access.
• Market linkage: Organic certification enables farmers to access premium markets and reduce input costs.

Significance

• Soil and water revival: Helps reverse soil degradation and declining groundwater levels.
• Farmer welfare: Lowers input costs and improves income through better prices.
• Public health: Reduces exposure to toxic agrochemicals for farmers and consumers.
• Biodiversity gains: Increased beneficial insects and soil microorganisms.

BHASHINI Samudaye

• BHASHINI Samudaye is being organised by MeitY in New Delhi to strengthen India’s language AI ecosystem.

BHASHINI Samudaye:

• BHASHINI Samudaye is a collaborative ecosystem platform under BHASHINI that enables co-creation, governance and scaling of Indian-language AI tools, datasets and services through partnerships with academia, civil society and technology developers.

Developed by:

• It is led by the Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as part of the National Language Translation Mission (NLTM).

Key Features

• Ecosystem-led AI governance: participatory model involving researchers, states, NGOs and startups.
• BHASHINI platform & APIs: enables real-time translation, speech-to-text and text-to-speech in Indian languages.
• BhashaDaan: citizen contribution platform for building open Indian-language datasets.
• Ethical data framework: ensures inclusive, consent-based and standardised data creation.
• Live use-case demonstrations: showing application in governance, education and public services.

Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM)

• DRDO successfully flight-tested the Third-Generation Fire & Forget Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) with top-attack capability against a moving target.

About Man Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM):

• MPATGM is a third-generation, fire-and-forget, shoulder-launched anti-tank guided missile system designed to destroy modern main battle tanks and armoured vehicles.

Developed by:

• Developed by DRDO, led by Defence Research & Development Laboratory (Hyderabad).

Aim:

• To provide Indian infantry with a high-precision, lightweight and lethal weapon capable of neutralising enemy armour under day-night and all-weather conditions.

Key Features:

• Fire & Forget system: After launch, the missile locks onto the target and guides itself, allowing the soldier to take cover or relocate.
• IIR homing seeker: Uses thermal imaging to detect enemy vehicles, enabling accurate targeting in day, night and low visibility.
• Top-attack mode: The missile strikes from above, where tank armour is thinnest, ensuring maximum destruction.
• Tandem HEAT warhead: A two-stage explosive first defeats reactive armour and then penetrates the main armour.
• 200–4,000 m range: Enables infantry to engage tanks from a safe stand-off distance.
• Man-portable launcher: Can be carried by soldiers and also mounted on tripods or military vehicles for flexible deployment.

Significance:

• Greatly enhances infantry’s anti-tank capability in high-intensity warfare.
• Reduces dependence on imported ATGMs like Spike and Javelin.
• Strengthens India’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat in defence technology.

Aerosols

• A new IIT Madras–led study published in Science Advances shows that air pollution aerosols are intensifying and prolonging winter fog over north India.

Aerosols : What they are?

• Aerosols are tiny solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere, often invisible to the naked eye, that strongly influence air quality, weather and climate.

Origin:

• Natural sources: desert dust, sea spray, volcanic ash, forest fires
• Human sources: vehicle emissions, industrial pollution, biomass burning, coal and diesel use
• They can be primary aerosols (emitted directly) or secondary aerosols (formed from gases like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the air).

Key features:

• Extremely small in size: Their tiny size allows aerosols to enter deep into lungs and stay suspended easily in the air.
• Stay in air for days to weeks: They travel long distances before settling or being washed out by rain.
• Condensation nuclei: Aerosols provide surfaces for water vapour to condense, forming fog and cloud droplets.
• Scatter or absorb sunlight: Some aerosols reflect sunlight, while others like black carbon absorb heat.

Implications

• Health: Aerosols worsen asthma, lung infections and heart diseases by penetrating the respiratory system.
• Weather: They make fog thicker and longer-lasting by increasing droplet formation and cooling.
• Climate (cooling): Reflective aerosols send sunlight back to space, lowering surface temperature.
• Climate (warming): Black carbon absorbs solar heat, warming the atmosphere.
• Cloud and rainfall changes: Aerosols make clouds brighter and longer-lived, altering rainfall patterns.

Greenwald Limit

• China’s EAST fusion reactor has achieved stable plasma densities up to 65% beyond the Greenwald limit, a long-standing barrier in nuclear fusion research.

Greenwald Limit:

• The Greenwald limit is a theoretical density ceiling for plasma in a tokamak (fusion reactor), beyond which the plasma becomes unstable and collapses.
• It links the maximum safe plasma density to the plasma current and size of the reactor.

Why it is important?

• Fusion reactions require very high plasma density, temperature, and confinement time.
• The Greenwald limit has long been a major bottleneck, preventing reactors from packing enough fuel to reach self-sustaining fusion (ignition).

Key features

• Tokamak-specific limit: The Greenwald limit applies to donut-shaped magnetic fusion reactors, where plasma is confined using strong magnetic fields.
• Stability threshold: Exceeding this limit normally causes plasma to become unstable and collapse, risking damage to the reactor.
• Density–energy link: Higher plasma density leads to more atomic collisions, which increases the rate of fusion and energy output.
• Design barrier: For decades, it was treated as a fixed ceiling, forcing engineers to limit fuel density in fusion reactors.

Achievement & Significance:

• China’s EAST reactor achieved 1.3–1.65 times the Greenwald limit while maintaining stability.
• Done by cooling the divertor and reducing tungsten impurities, allowing cleaner, denser plasma.
• Confirms Plasma–Wall Self-Organisation (PWSO) theory, proving a new “density-free” operating regime.

Bannerghatta National Park

• The Central Empowered Committee (CEC) in January 2026 recommended restoring the original 2016 Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around Bannerghatta National Park, undoing the reduced 2020 notification.

About Bannerghatta National Park:

• Bannerghatta National Park is a protected wildlife reserve and biodiversity hotspot forming the southern green lung of Bengaluru, crucial for conserving forests, elephants, and other wildlife.

Located in:

• It lies about 22 km south of Bengaluru across Bengaluru Urban and Ramanagara districts in Karnataka, in the Anekal hill range.

History:

• The area was declared a reserve forest in 1970 and became a national park in 1974.
• In 2002, a portion was carved out as the Bannerghatta Biological Park (zoo and safari) to promote conservation and tourism.

Geological and physical features

• Granite hill ranges: Part of the Anekal Hills, formed of ancient granite sheets that shape the park’s rugged terrain.
• Moist deciduous valleys: Lower elevations support dense forests that sustain elephants, deer, and predators.
• Dry scrub uplands: Higher elevations have scrub vegetation, important for grazing species.
• Wildlife corridors: BNP forms a vital elephant corridor linking BR Hills and Sathyamangalam forests.
• Water system: The Suvarnamukhi stream flows through the park, sustaining wildlife in a semi-arid landscape.

What is the issue?

• The Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) around BNP was reduced from 268.9 sq km (2016 draft) to 168.64 sq km (2020 notification), excluding key elephant corridors and forest buffers.
• This opened the door to real estate, quarrying and industrial expansion, increasing human–animal conflict and degrading wildlife habitats near a fast-expanding Bengaluru.

Greenland’s Resource Wealth

• Greenland holds large reserves of critical raw materials, minerals/metals and hydrocarbons, drawing strong interest due to the global clean-energy transition.

Resources Highlighted in Greenland

• Hydrocarbons Potential: USGS estimates ~31 billion barrels of oil-equivalent hydrocarbons in onshore northeast Greenland (including ice-covered areas), signalling major untapped energy wealth.
• Sedimentary Basins: Onshore basins like the Jameson Land Basin are seen as the most promising oil–gas zones, often compared to Norway’s hydrocarbon-rich shelf.
• Strategic Rare Earths: Greenland is predicted to hold ~40 million tonnes of dysprosium + neodymium, enough to meet >25% of projected future global demand.
• Gems & Special Minerals: Greenland hosts diamond-bearing kimberlite pipes, native iron lumps, Lead, copper, iron and zinc occur in mostly ice-free basins

Climate Change Link

• Ice Melt Unlocks Access: Since 1995, Greenland has lost ice over an area roughly the size of Albania, increasing the exposure of buried minerals and hydrocarbons.
• Transition vs Emissions Trap: Climate change makes resources more accessible, but large-scale extraction (especially oil/gas) can worsen emissions, deepening the crisis.

Why is Greenland so Resource-Rich?

• 4-Billion-Year Geology: Greenland contains some of Earth’s oldest rocks, meaning a long geological time for multiple mineral-forming events and deposit concentration.
• Three Resource Pathways: Unusually, Greenland experienced mountain building + rifting + volcanic activity, the three major geological processes that generate oil/gas, ores and REEs.
• Mountain Building Deposits: Compression fractured crust and created pathways for gold, rubies, and graphite to form in faults and fractures.
• Rifting Advantage: Repeated rifting (incl. Atlantic opening ~200 million years ago) formed sedimentary basins ideal for oil, gas, and metal mineralisation.
• Volcanic Contribution: Igneous layers & hydrothermal activity concentrated REEs (niobium, tantalum, ytterbium, etc.), similar to hydrothermal mineral deposits elsewhere.

Greenland

• It is the world’s largest non-continental island, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.
• Nearly 80% of Greenland is covered by the world’s second-largest ice sheet, after Antarctica.
• It is home to Kaffeklubben Island, the northernmost point of land in the world.
• Geographically part of North America but geopolitically linked to Europe, it’s an autonomous territory of Denmark.
• Greenland manages internal affairs, while Denmark controls foreign policy, defence, and currency.
• It falls under NATO Article 5 protection but is not part of the European Union.
• Home to Pituffik Space Base, vital for US missile defence operations & space monitoring in the Arctic.

Higher Education Regulation Bill 2025

The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, aims to overhaul higher education regulation by replacing fragmented regulators with a unified, NEP 2020-aligned framework.

Need For Regulation in Higher Education Sector

• System Explosion: India now has 1,000+ universities and ~42,000+ colleges (AISHE), but regulation is still fragmented, making approvals/monitoring slow and inconsistent.
• Low Gross Enrolment: India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) ~28% (AISHE) is far below NEP’s ambition.
• Poor Research Focus: India spends only ~0.7% of GDP on R&D (OECD), showing how institutions remain compliance-driven rather than research/innovation-driven.
• Weak Global Standing: Despite scale, India has only a limited presence at the top end globally; E.g., ~45 Indian institutions featured in QS World University Rankings 2025, indicating quality gaps.
• Skill Mismatch Pressure: India produces around 1.5 crore graduates annually, but multiple employability surveys (e.g., India Skills Report) indicate only ~45–50% are readily employable

Expected Impact of the Bill

• Access Expansion: A single-window clearance system can speed up approvals and capacity-building, helping raise India’s Gross Enrolment Ratio from ~28% → 50% by 2035 (NEP target).
• Global Recognition & Mobility: Unified standards and credible accreditation improve international trust; E.g., India currently it hosts only ~0.5% of global international students, showing huge potential.
• Student Accountability Loop: Structured student feedback & grievance systems can raise teaching quality and governance accountability at scale.

Key Provisions of the VBSA Bill, 2025

• Umbrella Regulator: Establishes Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan as the apex coordinating body.
• Three Councils: Separate Regulation, Accreditation, and Standards councils under VBSA.
• Regulatory Unification: Repeals UGC Act 1956, AICTE Act 1987, NCTE Act 1993.
• Outcome Accreditation: Introduces an outcome-based institutional accreditation framework.
• Foreign Universities: Regulates the entry and operation of foreign universities in India.
• Grant Separation: Removes grant-disbursal powers from the regulator; funding via the Ministry.
• Digital Disclosure: Mandates online public self-disclosure of finances, courses, and governance.
• Institutions Covered: Central & State Universities, Colleges and Higher Educational Institutions, Institutions of National Importance, Institutions of Eminence and Technical & Teacher Education Institutions
• Institutions Exempted: Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Law, Pharmacology, Veterinary Sciences.

Creator’s Corner

• Context (PIB): Prasar Bharati launched “Creator’s Corner” on DD News to showcase content by digital creators nationwide and strengthen India’s creator economy.
• WAVES (World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit) has also become a game-changer for India’s creator economy, aiming to empower ~1 crore youth and generate ~₹5,000 crore economic activity.
• Creator (Orange) Economy Refers to an ecosystem where content creators, digital platforms, brands and intermediaries interact to generate value and revenue.
• Prasar Bharati, established under Prasar Bharati Act, 1990, is India’s autonomous public broadcaster under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, comprising Doordarshan and All India Radio.

About Creator’s Corner

• Purpose: A dedicated DD News platform to feature curated content by independent digital creators.
• Objective: Promote digital economy & quality content creation through partnership between Prasar Bharati and creators, giving them national visibility.
• Coverage Themes: Includes news/current affairs, culture, travel, cuisine, art/literature, health, education, science-tech, environment, entertainment, etc.
• Broadcast Schedule: Telecast 7:00 PM (Mon–Fri) on DD News with repeat at 9:30 AM next day.

About WAVES Summit

• Purpose: A govt-led global platform to promote the Media & Entertainment and Creative Economy.
• Participants: Over 100 top global companies, including Netflix, Amazon, Meta, Sony, and Google.
• Key Objectives: Boost India’s M&E sector to achieve a $50 billion industry by 2029 and support the Orange Economy as a GDP and soft power driver.

Major Launches and Initiatives

• Indian Institute of Creative Technology: Skilling youth in media, animation and content creation.
• WAVES Bazaar: A global platform for creators to pitch and connect.
• WAVEX Accelerator: Helps startups in AVGC-XR (Animation, VFX, Gaming, Comics, Extended Reality).

NASA’s Pandora Mission

• SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched NASA’s Pandora satellite into a Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit.
• Twilight Mission: The launch was part of SpaceX’s “Twilight” rideshare mission, which carried 40 payloads, including NASA’s:
• SPARCS CubeSat: To monitor ultraviolet flares from nearby low-mass stars.
• BlackCAT: A wide-field X-ray telescope to detect high-energy events such as gamma-ray bursts.

About Pandora Mission

• Pandora is a low-cost SmallSat mission under NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers program aimed at studying the atmospheres of at least 20 exoplanets.
• Objective: It seeks to decouple a planet’s true atmospheric signals from the ‘stellar contamination‘ (noise) produced by its host star.
• Dual Vision: The satellite observes targets simultaneously in visible and infrared wavelengths to correct measurement errors.
• Visible-Light: Monitors the host star’s brightness to track starspots and measure its rotation speed.
• Infrared: Analyses the composition of exoplanet atmospheres using transmission spectroscopy.
• Dusk-Dawn Orbit: It orbits along Earth’s “terminator” line (the boundary between day and night), ensuring continuous sunlight and thermal stability.

Bhadrakali Temple Inscription

• Context (PIB): The Bhadrakali Temple Inscription is a major epigraphic record located at Prabhas Patan, Gujarat, near the Somnath Temple.
• Carved in 1169 CE, it records Somnath temple’s construction across four yugas by Chandra (in gold), Ravana (in silver), Krishna (in wood), and Bhimdev Solanki (in stone).
• The inscription records the fourth reconstruction of the temple by Bhimdev Solanki, followed later by a fifth rebuilding under Kumarapala.
• It serves as a prashasti (eulogy) for Bhava Brihaspati, a spiritual preceptor to King Kumarapala, who was appointed the chief priest of the Somnath temple.

Karthigai Deepam at Thiruparankundram Hill

• The Madras High Court allowed the ceremonial lamp lighting for Karthigai Deepam at Thiruparankundram Hill, granting access only to temple officials and excluding the public.
• Karthigai Deepam is the oldest festival of lights in Tamil Nadu, celebrated during the Tamil month of Karthigai to honour Lord Shiva and Lord Murugan.

About Thiruparankundram Hill

• Thiruparankundram Hill near Madurai is a 319-metre monolithic rock in the Vaigai River basin.
• Murugan Abode: It is considered the first among the six holy abodes of Lord Murugan.
• Hindu Temple: The Arulmigu Subramanian Swamy Cave Temple at the base is an 8th-century rock-cut shrine from the Pandya period.
• Rare Iconography: The temple depicts Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu facing each other.
• Jain Remains: Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions and stone beds show Jain monks using rock shelters since the 2nd century BCE.
• Dargah Summit: The summit houses the Sikandar Badusha Dargah, the tomb of Madurai’s last Sultan.
• Religious Legacy: The coexistence of a Vedic temple and an Islamic shrine represents a shared religious heritage.

16th International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Assembly

• Context (PIB): The 16th Assembly of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) was held in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
• The Assembly focused on accelerating the renewable transition aligned with the UAE Consensus, the 2030 SDG Agenda, and the Paris Agreement.

About IRENA

• The IRENA is the leading global intergovernmental organisation and the principal platform for international cooperation on all forms of renewable energy.
• It was founded in 2009 in Bonn, Germany, and is headquartered in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi.
• It supports its member countries in transitioning toward a sustainable energy future by providing data, policy advice, and financial expertise.
• It holds United Nations (UN) Observer status while operating as an independent body.
• Membership: It has 171 members (170 countries and the European Union); India is a founding member.
• India’s Role: India has a permanent seat on the IRENA Council; it signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement in 2022 to collaborate on green hydrogen and energy planning.
• Global Targets: IRENA promotes tripling renewable capacity and doubling energy efficiency by 2030, aligning with COP28.

Governance Structure

• The Assembly: It serves as the supreme decision-making body, convening once a year with one representative from each member.
• The Council: It oversees budgeting and reporting and has 21 elected members serving two-year terms, ensuring regional balance.
• Secretariat: It is the executive branch, providing administrative and technical support.

National Cooperative Sugar Federation

• The National Cooperative Sugar Federation (NCSF) sought urgent government intervention to address falling sugar prices and the financial stress on the industry.
• NCSF is the apex cooperative body representing all cooperative sugar factories and state-level sugar cooperative federations in India.
• Established in 1960, it operates under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002 (MSCS).
• Governance: It operates through an elected Board of Directors under the Ministry of Cooperation.
• Function: It serves as the primary spokesperson for cooperative mills at government forums, advises on modernising mills and improving sugarcane recovery, and advocates for farmers’ interests.

Flamingo Festival 2026

• The annual Flamingo Festival 2026, celebrating the arrival of thousands of migratory birds, is underway at the Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary.

About Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary

• Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary is a protected wetland ecosystem located in Andhra Pradesh.
• It lies near Pulicat Lake, India’s 2nd -largest brackish lagoon and a major flamingo feeding ground.
• The sanctuary hosts one of Southeast Asia’s largest breeding colonies of spot-billed pelicans.

About Flamingos

• Flamingos are long-legged wading birds known for their distinctive pink plumage, S-shaped necks, and unique filter-feeding bills.
• Types: Six flamingo species exist globally, with the Greater Flamingo being the largest and the Lesser Flamingo the smallest.
• Unique Feature: They have downward-curved bills with comb-like structures (lamellae) that filter food from water and mud; their vibrant colour comes from carotenoids in their diet.
• Habitat: They prefer warm wetlands and occur worldwide except Antarctica and Australia.
• Diet: They are omnivorous, primarily feeding on insects, blue-green algae and small crustaceans.
• Behaviour Traits: Flamingos are highly social and live in large colonies called flamboyances; they exhibit seasonal migratory movements.

Exercise Sanjha Shakti

• A joint Military Civil Fusion (MCF) exercise “Sanjha Shakti” was held to test civil–military emergency response and security preparedness.

About Exercise Sanjha Shakti

• Location: Conducted at Dighi Range, Khadki Military Station (Pune) under Maharashtra, Gujarat & Goa Area of Southern Command.
• Participants: Exercise involved the Indian Army and 16 civil agencies, including Maharashtra Police, Force One commandos, and Fire Fighting Departments.

Key Focus Areas

• SOP Validation: Simulated realistic scenarios to test Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and role clarity across agencies.
• Communication Links: Checked real-time communication mechanisms between civil authorities and the Army chain of command.

Lohri

• President Droupadi Murmu extended greetings to citizens on the occasion of Lohri.
• Lohri is a popular winter harvest festival celebrated across North India, especially in Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.
• The festival celebrates the ripening of crops; it marks the end of the winter solstice and the sun’s northward journey.
• Ritual: A large bonfire is lit at sunset, symbolising the sun, Agni, and the return of warmer days. People perform parikrama around the fire and offer traditional food to express gratitude for the harvest.
• Cultural Expression: Lohri highlights community bonding with folk music and dances like Bhangra and Gidda.